Another bridge collapse:

[malaise]

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173353784870&path=!nationworld&s=1037645509161
<snip>
DYSART, Pa. - The state will review the inspection records of 216 bridges with designs similar to a 116-year-old, single-lane bridge that collapsed soon after a snow plow drove over it, state officials said yesterday.

Nothing was on the 103-foot-long steel truss bridge when it fell late Thursday, and no one was injured, said Rich Kirkpatrick, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

State inspectors had labeled the bridge structurally deficient - meaning that various components had significant deterioration -and functionally obsolete,

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/pa/20071208_Records_check_set_after_old_bridge_falls.html

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[Selatius]

1. If we have the money to kill people in war, we obviously have the money to rebuild infrastructure.

Remember the blackout in New York a couple years back? Now these bridges. Then you have the smashed city of New Orleans and the Mississippi coast. We just have different priorities compared to the industrialized world.

We're spending 500+ billion/year on war-making and war preparations, and the next nearest rival (China) is spending 65 billion/year on the same.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/spending.htm

[malaise]

2. What struck me in both articles is they're now going to

review the inspection records of 216 bridges with designs similar to a 116-year-old, single-lane bridge.

These people make me kill. What you point to is a clear case of taxation without representation. The money is looted for the agenda of special interests including those of owned politicians.

[Kolesar]

3. Sad to lose an historic structure, too ... eom

[Perry Logan]

4. It makes you want to flip Ronald Reagan the bird.

[KharmaTrain]

5. The Infrastructure Will Only Get Worse

A byprodut of both boooshie's tax cuts to the wealthy and now the real estate bust is the drop in local and state taxes to pay for upgrading or replacing bridges and other structures.

We'll have more of these problems in the future as many bridges age...especially those on many interstates that are now 30 to 50 years old. Most roads were never designed for the amount of traffic pounding on them and the problems will get worse as tax bases shrink. What's a real kick in the ass are the "no tax" goons who love themselves some Ron Paul and don't want to pay a dime in taxes, yet will bitch when there's rises in crime or lack of local services due to those cuts.

This country could use a new Works Progress program.